Day 45, 60km: ( by Chris)

We cycled up a 12,400ft pass  on a road lined with trees dropping their yellow leaves over our heads and views of spectacular mountains flanked by tall grey cliffs and autumn colours. I powered up the road listening to such classics as Dire Straights and Corona, 'Rhythm of the Night' on a little speaker attached to my top tube. It was raining at the top but we enjoyed a 20km decent on smooth tarmac, although Amy fell off on a patch of gravel which squashed our aluminium camping pan. Luckily, she goes so slow down the hills that injury is almost impossible. For lunch I gave up trying to make sandwiches with tiny crap Chinese brioche and experimented with sliced meat stick* sandwiched between two stale rich tea biscuits. This was no better by any stretch of the imagination. In the afternoon we discovered the river we were going to follow downstream for 20km was actually upstream which was pretty disappointing so we stopped early deep in the bushes on a lovely patch of concealed green grass next to a river.

*We try not to buy meat in China, but this was all that was available in this area to go inside our makeshift sandwiches. Fickle perhaps, but as an Englishman, some sort of sandwich is imperative for a satisfactory packed lunch.